This is by far one of my favourite techniques for figuring out the root of any problem.
It’s simple. When you have a problem or need to dive into an issue just ask yourself “why?” five times.
For example:
Why can’t I get any work done? Because I’m distracted.
Why? Because I can’t focus on one thing at a time.
Why? I’m always jumping back and forth between different things.
Why? Because I receive too many notifications.
Why? Because I haven’t disabled notifications.
This example is a conversation I had with myself just over a month ago. You can read more about it from this post about killing notifications.